The present disclosure relates to spatial audio, and more particularly, to the use of spatial audio on a computer device.
Spatial audio provides the ability to place sounds about the listener using volumetric coordinates. For example, the listener may be placed at an origin point represented as (x, y, z), where x=0, y=0 and z=0 or (0, 0, 0). A sound can be placed at any position represented as a combination of values of (x, y, z).
There are various methods of rendering spatial audio such that the listener experiences the sound as originating from the position specified, however, some spatial rendering technologies cannot maintain relative geometric positioning and velocity due to geometric distortions (e.g., warping) introduced in the rendering process. For example, spatial rendering technologies that rely on physical speakers placed around the listener to achieve the specialization effect can exhibit spatial audio warping as a physical room geometry, e.g., the relative locations and number of the physical speakers, in which the spatial audio content is rendered can be different from the geometry used to create the spatial audio content. Because the physical room geometry is not known when content is authored, the spatial audio content must be authored to a standardized or normalized geometry that abstracts the physical room into a known layout or geometry (referred to as a normalized room or spatial geometry).
In particular, a spatial audio renderer maps the normalized room geometry into the physical room geometry. The conversion from the normalized room geometry to the physical room geometry can result in a warping in geometric space. For instance, if the author animated a sound in a perfect circle about the listener at a constant velocity based on the normalized room geometry, then the result generated by the spatial audio renderer in a differently configured physical room geometry would not be a perfect circle and the velocity would not be constant, resulting in a warping of both space and time.
Thus, there is a need in the art for improvements in spatial audio.